Timothée Chalamet has broken his silence on the allegations facing his Call Me By Your Name co-star Armie Hammer.
The pair co-starred as lovers in Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 romance about a boy (Chalamet) who falls for his father’s graduate student assistant (Hammer) while on holiday in Italy.
In 2021, Hammer was accused of sexual abuse by multiple women and rape by one woman. He vehemently denied any criminal wrongdoing but admitted to being “emotionally abusive” and treating people poorly.
In a new interview with GQ, Chalamet was asked about the timing of the allegations, which coincided with his filming of Guadagnino’s cannibal love story Bones and All. Among the accusations levied against Hammer was that he had expressed cannibalistic fetishism via texts to women.
“I mean, what were the chances that we’re developing this thing?” Chalamet told GQ of the period.
He said seeing reports suggesting that the film was inspired by Hammer “made me feel like: Now I’ve really got to do this. Because this is actually based on a book”.
Asked how he personally experienced the allegations against Hammer, Chalamet replied: “I don’t know. These things end up getting clickbaited so intensely. Disorienting is a good word.”
Timothée Chalamet (left) and Armie Hammer in 2018— (Getty Images)
Following the allegations, Hammer lost his talent representation and was dropped from several projects, including the film Shotgun Wedding, Broadway play The Minutes, and TV series The Offer.
It was announced at the end of May that Hammer would not face sexual assault charges following a lengthy investigation into the allegations. Los Angeles County DA’s office said there was “insufficient evidence” to charge the actor with a crime.
The Social Network star spoke out for the first time since the claims against him were made in February when he gave an interview to Air Mail. He alleged that he was sexually abused by a youth pastor at the age of 13, which resulted in his interest in BDSM and extreme sexual power dynamics.
In the wake of the abuse allegations, Hammer said he “walked out into the ocean and swam out as far as I could and hoped that either I drowned, or was hit by a boat, or eaten by a shark”.
“Then I realised that my kids were still on shore, and that I couldn’t do that to my kids,” he added.
Hammer and ex-wife Elizabeth Chambers settled their divorce earlier this year after separating in 2020.
